Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Knoxville work crew inadvertently demolishes sold county house

Before/after 1611 E. Glenwood Ave.

Imagine you have agreed to sell your house. As you're about to close
the deal, someone else comes to your property and tears the house to
the ground.

That's exactly what happened in East Knoxville where
Knox County sold an abandoned home at auction to a man from California.
While the county and buyer proceeded with the purchase, the City of
Knoxville was moving forward with plans to raze the blighted house.

"It
was sold at public auction for $7,200. The day before we were doing a
closing, we learned the city had inadvertently demolished the home.
Obviously, when we went to close, the gentleman who had purchased the
home was not interested in closing," said Hugh Holt, purchasing director
for Knox County.

The house at 1611 E. Glenwood Avenue was demolished on August 6. The
abandoned property came into the county's possession by default after
years of delinquent property taxes.

David Brace, director of
public works for the City of Knoxville, said the home had been on a list
for demolition for some time. The city demolishes around 60 to 70
blighted structures every year.

"We will demolish a home when it
is a health or safety issue to a neighborhood or a community," said
Brace. "If you live next door to one of these [houses], they're
horrible. People break into them, steal the copper out of them, drugs,
prostitution, and so on. So they're a real serious issue. That house
had been blighted for a long time. It had been a problem for the
community for many years."

Holt said without the house on the property, similar parcels have sold
for around $1,000. While that's a considerable drop relative to an
auctioned price of $7,200, it is still only a few thousand dollars in
the grand scheme of things. The greater concern is ensuring a similar
demolition mix-up does not occur in the future.

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the glass is usually half empty

My name is Mike Donila and I'm a reporter with WBIR in Knoxville, TN. I cover government. All politics is local, and mostly ridiculous. Travis Fain of Lucid Idiocy said that. He's a smart guy. This is my blog. The content ranges.